Patent Hoarder Going After Cable Companies, TV Broadcasters

from the anyone-and-everyone dept

Mon, Feb 18th 2008 8:31am — Mike Masnick

Here we go with yet another ridiculous patent hoarding company trying to sue anyone and everyone. This time, it's Rembrandt IP, a company that we recently wrote about for gaming the new MercExchange injunction rules. It did so by getting two competitors to fight against each other, allowing only one to license the patent, which the "winner" could then use to force an injunction against the other one (basically, suing two competitors and telling whichever one caved first that it could help put the other out of business). A few weeks back, it unfortunately won that case, and is now gearing up to use the winnings as it claims patents on both the digital TV broadcasting standard and the widely used cable modem standard, DOCSIS. In both cases, it's asking for huge licensing fees. On the broadcasting standard, it may have a tough battle, as it appears that Rembrandt is doing the same thing that the FTC just smacked down another company for doing: basically buying up a patent and then ignoring an earlier agreement on how that patent would be used. In this case, Rembrandt is trying to ignore the fact that AT&T (who originally held the patent) promised to license it for "Reasonable and Non-Discriminatory" (RAND) rates. Either way, though, this is yet another unfortunate example of a hedge fund-backed patent hoarder trying to exploit the system, rather than doing anything to "promote the progress."

Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.

Techdirt is one of the few remaining truly independent media outlets. We do not have a giant corporation behind us, and we rely heavily on our community to support us, in an age when advertisers are increasingly uninterested in sponsoring small, independent sites — especially a site like ours that is unwilling to pull punches in its reporting and analysis.

While other websites have resorted to paywalls, registration requirements, and increasingly annoying/intrusive advertising, we have always kept Techdirt open and available to anyone. But in order to continue doing so, we need your support. We offer a variety of ways for our readers to support us, from direct donations to special subscriptions and cool merchandise — and every little bit helps. Thank you.

–The Techdirt Team

Filed Under: cable modems, digital tv, docsis, patents
Companies: rembrandt ip

4 Comments

If you liked this post, you may also be interested in...

Reader Comments

Subscribe: RSS

View by: Time | Thread

matt, 18 Feb 2008 @ 9:33am

who is behind this?
has anyone looked into who owns this patent company and their ties? I have a feeling this is not something they just picked up and decided to do...someone is behind it.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
BubbaLove, 18 Feb 2008 @ 10:53am

Sure is sad...
Boy, these patent abuse stories come out every day now. It's so sad that this is the state of business today - people trying to make a quick, dishonest buck off of ideas that weren't even theirs are helping to ruin industry. This is going to get out of hand to a point where US markets won't be able to compete on a global scale anymore, and there's not going to be anyone to blame but ourselves for trying to game the system. Truly disgusting.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Me, 18 Feb 2008 @ 11:27am

Re: Sure is sad...
I wanted to post something, then realized you said everything I wanted to say. So very sadly true.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Wildhoof, 18 Feb 2008 @ 1:49pm

You know what is next...
Ever since Al Gore said he invented the internet, I've been waiting for him to sue the pants off of all the ISPs. Okay, just kidding, couldn't resist.
[ link to this | view in thread ]